Field workers on child marriage advocacy call for a user-friendly toolkit

Participants attending a two-day workshop on the validation of the updated child marriage advocacy toolkit, have called for a user-friendly toolkit for smooth facilitation.

They were of the view that toolkits with the appropriate materials would enhance delivery and help to achieve the expected outcomes in the fight against child marriage.

The workshop, which was to validate the updated toolkit and also build the capacities of participants, was attended by field workers and other sector officers drawn from the Department of Gender and civil society organisations working in the area of child marriage.

The updated toolkit is being developed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) following concerns raised by field workers on some contents in the existing toolkit.

The participants, who welcomed efforts by the UNFPA to update the toolkit, made several recommendations for consideration in the final toolkit to make it fit for purpose.

They particularly expressed varied views on some of the pictures in the toolkit and the impressions they depicted and called for changes to reflect the situations on the ground.

They also made inputs to the type of materials suitable for the toolkit that would guarantee durability and flexibility for the users.

Sheila Minkah-Premo, a Consultant putting together the updated toolkit told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the workshop that it was important to collect the views of the people who would work with the toolkit.

She said as key stakeholders engaging relevant members of the public in the fight against child marriage they should not be left out in the process to update the toolkit.

She expressed concern about the devastating effects on the lives of innocent victims of child marriage whose education were often truncated due to the self-interest of parents.

"Child marriage has a lot of negative health implications and the key one of which is that since they are very young, their bodies are not suitable to carry a child or give birth safely," she pointed out.

Minkah-Premo said statistics showed that efforts by the government and other development partners to curb the menace over the years were yielding results but was quick to add that the advocacy must be sustained.